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Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Oriental Pavilion @ Jaya 33, PJ serves delectable and sumptuous Chinese cuisines. They have dim sum too. If you do not make a booking in advance for lunch or dinner on weekends or public holidays, you can be assured of joining in the long bee line at the entrance of the restaurant.

'Ngap sow' - the meat of the Peking duck is diced and stir fried into another dish. The meat is then wrapped with fresh lettuce leaves...

Baked crab with cheese...

Hokkien 'tai loke meen'. The toppings on the noodles are deep fried 'jie yau jar' lard. The generous amount of lard makes the noodles very flavorful. But I only ate a spoonful as this dish is super fattening and artery clogging!

We also ordered an assortment of dim sum. I would rate the food 8/10 and the ambience and cleanliness of the restaurant 8/10.

Friday, November 26, 2010

Rascal #2 always wants to be different from the rest. On regular school-going days, she would dilly dally and refuse to go to school. On the last day of school last Friday where she was not required to wear her school uniform, she wore her school uniform after her shower upon returning from school... and wore the school uniform to attend her Mandarin tuition class!

On one afternoon last week, she worn her Disney sunnies during lunch time. See how silly she looks here...

Check out the half sliced lime on her cup. She pinched that lime from me when I was making lime juice and stuck the lime to her cup! I guess she's pretending she's having a tropical lunch by the beach haha!

I thought that my hair shedding problem will stop once I stop breastfeeding. I thought that the hair shedding problem was caused by hormonal changes but nope, the problem ain’t ending. My hair is still shedding and my scalp is getting more and more visible. I really need to get to the root of the problem and find an effective product to stop the hair loss. There are plenty of websites where I can learn more and find suitable products. Do you have any effective products for hair loss to recommend to me?

Lately Baby has been waking up really early in the morning, sleeping late at night and does not nap in the afternoon. She has been bugging me and breathing down my neck. I have no me time to do the things that I like. I cannot even have my half hour of quiet me time in the morning when I work out in the gym or run outside. She is also turning into a rebellious rascal and making my blood boil all the time. I hope I won’t succumb to high blood pressure. I hope I don’t need to use anti wrinkle face cream. Kids! They can really make you age faster!

Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Alycia and Cassandra are the best of friends. I think it really has to do with chemistry. Baby was lying on the couch watching TV one afternoon and then Alycia lay down next to her, turned her face towards Baby's and then hugged and kissed her baby sister... like 2 love birds LOL! I always ask Alycia why isn't she this chummy with Sherilyn and she will shrug her shoulders and say that her 2nd sister is very naughty, sigh!!

Monday, November 22, 2010

There was a promotion on Laughing Cow and Arla cheese spreads at Jusco about 2 weeks ago. Buy any 2 tubs of cheese spread from the Laughing Cow and Arla brands, a tub of Arla tomato and herbs cheese spread worth about RM15 will be given free. Since there are 4 cheese lovers at home, me inclusive, I bought 2 tubs. The cheese spread would go really well with plain crackers and bread.

At the sampling booth for the cheese spread on crackers, rascal #2 and #3 ate so much that I felt really bad, thus that's also one of the reasons that I had to buy the cheese spread hehe...

Friday, November 19, 2010

Due to time constraint, I have not been exercising on my fit ball for over a week. Consequently, the pain on my lower back is slowly rearing its ugly head again. One of these days, I have to buy an orthopedic mattress to support my back when I get my beauty sleep. The mattress is going to cost quite a bit but I think it will be a good choice of investment for my overall well-being.

Rascal #2 has this quirk where if I give A to her, she will will ask for B. And the next day if I give her B, she will ask for A, deliberately in defiance as if to rebel against mummy. On most mornings, I will nag and nag and nag this little rascal to hurry up to finish her milk, to wash up, to dress up and to go to school. It's a chore getting her to get ready for school. On some mornings, she will lie in bed, whine and bawl, refusing to go to school. Today is her last day of going to school for this year. There was a year-end party in the school this morning.

Just now after her shower, guess what this fella did? Instead of wearing a dress, she donned on her school uniform... and she's going to wear that to attend Mandarin tuition later. Can't believe she did this! And I wonder what her friends and teachers at the tuition centre are going to say, haha!

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

I was doing revision with Sherilyn last week to prepare her for her exam and when I came to the Collective Nouns for animals, I was amazed to note that the 5-year olds in her pre school are taught these:

I am sure some of us don't even know the collective noun for goose, horse and whales eh? And I am amazed that my rascal could remember all the collective nouns here.

Yesterday I collected Sher's report card from pre-school. She scored 90% and above for all her papers. I am very proud of her. I hope she will continue to produce As for her papers next year, which will be her last year in kindy. But I'm worried how she will cope in a Chinese primary school given her dilly dally attitude. I hope she'll change.

Sunday, November 14, 2010

After lunch at Coliseum Restaurant about 3 Sundays ago, we had desserts at Restoran Sari Ratu, a restaurant that specializes in authentic Nasi Padang and Minangkabau cuisine. The restaurant itself originated from Indonesia and has spread its wings to Malaysia. There are currently about 6 outlets in Malaysia. The one that we went to is at Jln Sultan Ismail. If you like Indonesian food and desserts, this is the place to go to. The food is pretty good.

Saturday, November 13, 2010

My mil bought this cute Disney Thumbelina pen for the girls in Hong Kong recently. Nice hor? How lucky are my girls. I rarely had these luxuries when I was a kid. My girls have been receiving so many cute, pretty and awesome gifts all the time from their aunts and grandparents ever since they were born. Lucky them and I hope that they will always be blessed with many people showering them with love and gifts always.

Friday, November 12, 2010

I can't believe I managed to purge out 16 paid posts this morning. I woke up at 5:30am today to prepare myself for a long and busy day ahead as my supplier told me that she will deliver my batch of stock today. But when I logged into my advertiser's website, I almost fell off my chair when I saw 12 opps waiting for me. Fifteen minutes later, 4 new opps appeared. Oh thank you Sheriff! I always think that I work better under stress. I gave the gym a miss this morning and sat in front of the PC from 6am until 10am and completed all the 16 paid posts and dished out another 2 personal posts. Phew, 18 posts in less than 4 hours ... I need a breakie now. Shower Baby, have a shower myself and then work starts again. I have a stack of consignment notes to write. I better prepare the Pos Laju bags now so that when my stock arrives this evening, I can concentrate on stock check and QA check. I hope my girls can help me out too.

I remember that before my wedding day more than a decade ago, I had some zits on my face. I freaked out and panicked and frantically google searched on how to get rid of acne fast on the internet. I bought several types of pimple creams and applied them on my face day and night. Thankfully the pimples cleared before my wedding. Those few weeks before my wedding were really stressful – mentally, physically and financially! I never want to go through that again. Of course, who wants to go through a wedding twice?

Alycia and Sherilyn have been badgering me and their daddy to bring them to Genting Highlands to watch Doraemon live. I think it would be fun to bring the girls to Genting Highlands as they have never been there. As for me, the last time I went there was about a decade ago! I shall bug the hubs to bring us there during the school holidays, if only we could still get the tickets to watch Doraemon. A holiday in a highlands resort will definitely be kinder to our pockets than those Outer Banks vacation rentals. Have you made your holiday plans yet?

How often do you see men in hats? Not sports cap but Hats for Men, like cowboy hats. I hardly ever bump into a man wearing a cowboy hat or any other hat, other than caps. One time we bumped into a man wearing a cowboy hat and when he removed the hat, he was bald. My #2 who saw the shiny ‘botak’ head gladly and excitedly announced loudly “mummy, botak man”! At that point, I really hoped that there was door next to me so that I could open the door and run out of the restaurant as fast as I could!

Whenever I see zits popping out on my flawless face, I know that it’s the time of the month again. Last night, while I was applying acne treatment cream on my face, Baby who was next to me watched with awe as I put the brown cream on my chin. It was the first time she caught me putting brown color stuff on my chin and I think she must be wondering why mummy is doing that. She looked really cute staring at me, with mouth wide opened and with such curiosity in her eyes haha!

The other day over dinner with my friends, I saw one of my friends popping some pills just before she ate her meal. I thought they were supplement pills but when I asked her, she told me that they were pills to stop the fat and carbo from making her fat! She said she could not find the time to exercise, thus have to resort to the most popular diet pills to help her stay slim. Up until today, I still don’t have the courage to pop diet pills. I rather sacrifice half an hour of sleep each morning to work out in the gym.

Today is going to be an extremely busy day for me. On top of 16 online assignments to complete, I am expecting a big batch of ladies clothes from my supplier. While I feel happy each time I get an order, I dread the sight of the stock in my living room. After this batch of stock is settled, my supplier will be bringing in some special occasion dresses for the year end holidays. So do check out my online store ya!

Rascal #2 has a terrible temper. She always tells me that she wants to be a princess like Cinderella but I always tell her that if she continues to scream, complain, whine and throw tantrums, she is just like Cinderella’s step sisters. The other day, in her fit of rage, she pulled the drawer out and the drawer was yanked out of the cupboard. There was a huge bang on the floor and she gave me yet another heart flat line. Thank God that the heavy drawer (about 5kg) did not land on her feet or Baby’s feet. And thank God that there was no damage to our floor, else we would need to look for discount laminate flooring to patch up the crack.

The long school term break will be here in just a week’s time. The girls have nothing much to look forward to, except for the usual trip back to Ipoh and then to Penang. A holiday in Penang twice a year is a sure thing for us for the next 10 years. Those of you who follow my blogs will know why. I can’t wait for the 10 years to be up so that we can have an Orlando vacation with the girls.

We have an air purifier which doubles up as an ionizer and dehumidifier in our bedroom. My lips used to get really dry every night in the air-conditioned bedroom but with the air purifier cum dehumidifier switched on, I don’t get dry lips and throat anymore. I think this gadget is really well spent and is a good investment. I may buy another unit for the girls’ bedroom too if the price of the air purifier cum dehumidifier goes down.

Baby is getting more and more greedy and hungry for junk food by the day, ever since she was weaned off my boops. Each time she sees food on the kitchen counter top, this rascal will climb up the counter top by stepping on the drawer handles. She freaks me out whenever she does this. If the drawer handle breaks and gets yanked off, she will fall and her chin will land on the counter top. I can imagine how bad the consequences would be if this happens. She really needs to be watched over like a hawk all the time

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Remember my earlier post on Baby who kept throwing stuff out of the window of our condo unit? Well, for a few days straight, she kept throwing stuff down, despite being reprimanded and whacked.

The next target were Sherilyn's hair ties and ribbons...

Funnily after this particular stuff-flinging session, she stopped. I guess her curiosity had been quelled. She saw the cause and effect and the consequences to her actions. And she learned some lessons too..

Tuesday, November 9, 2010

I have this idiosyncrasy in me where my mood is determined by the weather. Yup the daily weather. When I see dark skies with a looming thunderstorm, my mood is instantly lifted up and I feel really happy LOL!! When the big bright yellow sun is out and the skies are bright, I actually feel down. Weird eh? I guess that's because I cannot stand hot weather. I think I will be happy if I lived overseas in a cold country. Today the skies are dark and cloudy... I can anticipate rain coming, woohooo.... I am happy hehehe!!

Saturday, November 6, 2010

We had lunch at Canton-I Restaurant at Gardens, Mid Valley yesterday. Canton-I serves very good dim sum and Hong Kong cuisine. The food is supposedly MSG-free, pork is free from beta-agonist, only low cholesterol eggs are used and rice bran oil is used. Well, this is what was written in their menu.

Roast goose drumstick (siew ngor pei), wanton mein and yau char kwai. The yau char kwai was very crispy and went well with the abalone-prawn-chicken porridge. I love the porridge as the consistency is super smooth. I think the porridge was blended to get such smooth consistency.

Siew Mai...

and there were also a plate of seafood fried rice, HK style chee cheong fun, a big bowl of seafood porridge and a plate of stir-fried lobak koa (stir fried radish). Food was so much that we could not finish and had to take away the left over, which we ate for dinner.

Canton-I's business philosophy on food freshness and quality...

Canton-I is located near Din Tai Foong, which is also our other favorite Hong Kong style restaurant.

I would rate the food at Canton-I 9/10. Be sure to go there early, otherwise be assured to join in the long queue outside the restaurant.

I hardly ever keep greeting cards and postcards that I receive. Oh well, maybe I will keep those exceptionally nice ones like those postcards with photos of my friends or photos of their babies printed on them. Some of my friends are willing to spend their money on postcard printing so that their friends and relatives can keep those cards or frame them up. My hubs always complains that we don’t have enough storage space in our condo, so we are forced to throw away and give away many things. Do you keep greeting cards and postcards?

Wednesday, November 3, 2010

The past 1 week has been a crazy week for me. My 3 girls have been down with purging and fever the whole of last week and that's every mum's nightmare when all their kids fall sick together. After Alycia's exam had ended, next in turn was Sherilyn's. Her exam is still on-going and will only end tomorrow. As fate has it, my stock from my suppliers always arrive at a time when I am the busiest. And offers from advertisers also always come together when I am the busiest with my online store. I can't believe the impeccable timing and coincidence of things and events that have been happening to me all these while. Gawd, I am so terribly burnt out! While I had to spend time to do revision with Sherilyn, I could not just let the pile of stock sit in the living room. One, it is such an eye sore to have a mountain of stock in the middle of the living room. Two, my customers' will be chasing me and inundating me with "when can I receive my things?"

Last night, I only had 3-4 hours of sleep. You can read the story in my health blog, Health Is Wealth.

There are still chunks of cheese, tubs of sour cream and a packet of digestive biscuits in the fridge. I think my mil will bake a cheese cake one of these days. Oh I can’t wait for her to bake again as I love cheese cakes. I have also put in my request for almond cookies. My mil’s almond cookies are awesome too. Gosh, if I continue gorging on carbs like this, I will have to start reading lipofuze reviews since I don’t have the time to put in extra minutes to work out everyday.

My mil made some blueberry tarts yesterday. They were the most sinfully delicious tarts ever. Simply lip-smacking and I can polish off 2 at one go. She had spent the whole afternoon in the kitchen to produce about 10 tarts and all were gone in just a day. I could see that the process and method of making the tarts were really very tedious and complicated and only a person who loves baking would be patient enough to sweat it out in the kitchen to produce such lovely pastries. Today she made banana walnut muffins again. If she continues to whip up such sinful treats so frequently, I may have to rely on the best fat burners to help me stay slim.

My hubs and I have polar opposite characters. I am a very disciplined person while he is a very relaxed person. I am a chronic worrier while he is carefree. I am a health freak and religiously pop my vitamins everyday while he will only pop his vitamins, including his chondroitin glucosamine msm if I feed them to him every morning. If I forget about his vitamins, so will he! Well, they say opposites attract! The only thing that we have in common is probably the fact that we both love to eat good food.

My mum commented once that she thought I had applied grayish eye shadow on my eye lids and under my eyes when she saw my pictures on Facebook. That’s because I hardly apply eye shadow ever since I left the corporate world. I then told her that the gray color ain’t eye shadow but dark circles! That’s how sleep deprived I am. I look like a mama panda all the time. I seriously need to google search on remove dark circles under eyes to get the best solution to rid those dark circles.

My mum commented once that she thought I had applied grayish eye shadow on my eye lids and under my eyes when she saw my pictures on Facebook. That’s because I hardly apply eye shadow ever since I left the corporate world. I then told her that the gray color ain’t eye shadow but dark circles! That’s how sleep deprived I am. I look like a mama panda all the time. I seriously need to google search on remove dark circles under eyes to get the best solution to rid those dark circles.

An unhealthy physical appearance may reflect unhealthy guts. If you have acne and a protruding belly, suffer from constipation and are gaining weight, chances are that there is toxic buildup in your body system. But help is at hand with colon cleansers like colovexus. For me, I gulp down a glass of apple cider vinegar with psyllium husk every morning and I think that’s the best colon cleanser for me. It tastes awful but oh well, I am still ok with it as long as it can help me feel and look good.

Several customers suggested to me that I should also carry a collection of men's clothing in my online store. I had actually wanted to bring in some men’s clothing at the beginning of the year as my relative is a men’s clothing wholesaler but have to shelve my plans. As it is now, I cannot cope with the sales volume and I have no help at all. I am running a one-man show here. If I hire a part-time helper, I will definitely consider bringing in men’s clothing, bags and accessories.

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Health Freak Mommy

Health Freak Mommy has been writing advertorials - both local and international since April 2007. HFM writes reviews and advertorials on products, restaurants and food. If you need to place an advertorial in this blog, please email Shireen at shireenyong@gmail.com.